I want to love this game and support the devs, but the CEO of Moon is making it difficult.
Thomas keeps going on Twitter being insufferable. He just went on a big, unprompted anti DEI rant. (I’m aware most of you will be on his side with this.) I was following for game updates, all I got was some over privileged guy arguing and ignorantly ranting and dodging accountability.
I used to be excited for this game, but Thomas’s recent Twitter posts have killed it for me. Are Thomas’s recent posts the official stances of Moon Studios? That DEI is a perversion? That it’s OK to publicly argue with people on twitter, your followers then harass that person relentlessly, and you don’t acknowledge it? That UX researchers don’t actually work on a game? I’m not optimistic about the community if we’re culling new players based on Thomas’s Twitter posts that get attention. Which, yes, that’s already happening, we saw it in the Discord.
Wicked already has tons of character variety, coming from actual interest in making cool characters and believing the race, defects or sillyness will help build more interesting likeable characters. I like winnick, i like the fat chick from the tavern, i like eleanor, and so on. The game does not need an ““ESG consultant”” to determine how the characters should be written, no game should. ““Diversity”” was literally never a problem in actually good inspired games, people always made all sorts of cool characters.
If someone is going to drop the game because the dev said he doesnt like ESG consultants, then thats no big loss : These people clearly are more interested in other things than a genuinely fun and good videogame by a reasonable developer. The people you would lose in the contrary scenario would be the people interested a genuinely fun and good videogame.
As for the “ux researches dont actually work on a game” part : She explicitly said she worked on software, which she didnt. She explicitly suggested she did literally anything to actually affect the existence of Ori, which she didnt. Thomas didnt go out of its way to harass anyone, if anything the one journalist lady was the one that started whining and insulting.
Im sorry if youre more interested in metrics forced by investment companies rather than the actual gameplay, characters, settings, and plot of the game.
This is bad bait, but I’ll engage because I’m bored. Working hard and achieving success = privilege, now? Our ancestors are rolling in their graves about this stuff.
The game is good. I suggest avoiding social media entirely if it makes you upset to see people with their own opinions say things on their personal profiles. You were not following a corporate account.
A CEO doesn’t have to be any certain way, have specific opinions, conduct themselves in a way you like, etc. If you disagree with them or don’t like the way they conduct themselves, simply do not purchase what they sell if it means a lot to you.
I don’t think I’ve ever bought a game just because it is pro DEI or anti DEI. Most people just look at some footage, and decide whether the game looks cool or fun, and that’s it. You are overthinking this imo.
Just to be clear: I’d never want anyone to harass anyone else, god knows we have enough of that going on and it ought to stop.
If you want to get your opinion across, just discuss things with people in a reasonable way and even if you want to not be nice, just be nice anyway - you’ll never get people to see your side if you’re a jerk about it.
The only thing that happened here is that I received some DMs on twitter about why our folks at Moon are publicly attacking people, so I looked into it and apparently this lady was out there calling gamers ‘incels’ and had a bit of a meltdown online.
So I replied to her message, making it clear to those people who thought we’re cool with people at Moon talking badly about others online that this lady isn’t affiliated with Moon in any way.
That doesn’t mean I want others to harass her or condone that sorta behavior in any way.
Then this Kotaku lady called me a dickhead, which made me chuckle, cause you’d think that a games reporter who’s working for a well-known outlet would know how to conduct themselves. I then explained to her how we work at Moon and that it is often indeed a messy process.
I’ve never heard any developer who worked on a successful game saying: “Oh yeah, this production was super easy, we never argued, always agreed to everything, always had the right answers right away and shipped an amazing product!” - Nah, we’re humans and a lot of times it needs passionate arguments in order to come up with the correct answer.
Let’s all be respectful and not harass each other, folks. Life’s too short.
Fully prompted, and just common sense. And ESG/DIE - or older term
SJWs before it became more clear wtf is going on - deserves every shit it gets and you never hate it enough.
There are amazing games that will align with your tastes more - dustborn, unknown 9 awakening, dragonage: DEIguard in a few days.
Everything you force on an artist kills art. It makes the creator resent the thing that is forced on. As it have been for centuries. The Hungarian poem “The Bards of Wales” is a clear example of that.
What should be with poets whose muse is a singular woman/or man and they write about how white their skin is how blue their eyes and how blonde their hair is? Should we say he is clearly racist as the poet is in love with a singular person, who is white? Or should we make it a requirement to write about the other gender and different races?
Of course art when it supports supremacy (racial or political) is still bad.
Also if i would have a take like the UX researcher did on social media, I would be fired right away from my very much DEI corporate job, it any connection could be made to my job, because you are not supposed to bad mouth people “hiding” behind a company.
I’m on the way left side of the political isle and his comments were spot on. Twitter is Twitter he’s not responsible for what other people do on it including harass someone he responds to. Grown adults are responsible for what they do and say online not him.
Diversity is great when it comes from a place of creativity, but token characters and requirements being forced on artists is not the way to do things. Neither are consultants. Genuinely there are people who belong in DEI departments (DEI departments are a good thing), that are somehow consulting on stories, art, character design, and gameplay in games…Art is supposed to be provocative and genuine. This can only come from talented artists who are able to implement their vision without interference. Consultants have resulted in the same vision in every medium everywhere you look because they bring the same vision and ideas to every project almost dogmatically. A lot of games, movies, and TV today feel artificial and soul-less. This isn’t because they are diverse, but because of how these ideas are translated into their respective mediums.
The quality of recent media speaks to the truth of what he said. This game is a breath of fresh air. It feels like a unique vision rather than some design by committee bs that we see failing left and right all over the place. Artists and designers need to be allowed to be themselves and people need to stay out of their way. This has always been true, and just because the topic is diversity doesn’t make it not so. Do you want a studio head dictating what scenes Quentin Taratino, or Jordan peele keeps in their movies? No. Why is this any different? Let artists be artists. Let them build what they want and be glad they exist because I’m not creative enough to do what they do.